MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The little man stared into the belly of the beast. No, literally. There was a dribbling Ty Lawson, his back arced just so, facing the stomach of Memphis' Sasquatch of a center, the hairy and scary Marc Gasol. Lawson, with brilliant body control, averted the big man under the basket and instead curved away, spotting Danilo Gallinari on the right wing.

Gal-looooooooo!

Yep, Gallo hit the 3, giving the Nuggets a four-point lead Monday night with 12.7 seconds left, a Rocky Balboa-like knockout by Denver's own version of the "Italian Stallion."

The visitors thus defeated the hottest team in basketball 97-92, thanks to another clutch 3-pointer by Gallo, who also led Denver to a road victory at Golden State.

Denver Nuggets' Danilo Gallinari is pressured by Memphis Grizzlies' Rudy Gay during the first half on Tuesday in Memphis. Gallinari scored 26 points in the Nuggets' 97-92 victory. (Danny Johnston, The Associated Press)

"When you are aggressive mentally," he said, "you just follow your instincts."

This was the biggest win of the nascent season for Denver (5-6), which is in the middle of a three-game road trip. Denver lost its first three games, then won four, then lost three. So, who knows, maybe this is the start of a four-game win streak? Either way, this is one the Nuggets will remember. Memphis was 8-1 and the talk of the league before the boys in blue came into town and beat the Grizzlies at their own game.

Memphis is known for pounding the boards, but Denver had 47 rebounds to just 33 from the home team. The Grizzlies had 21 defensive rebounds; the Nuggets had 21 offensive rebounds.

Advertisement

Before the game, Denver coach George Karl suggested that one of his three bigs needed a double-double for Denver to win. Well, Kenneth Faried, who turned 23 on Monday, had 13 and 13. Meanwhile, the other two flirted, too, with double-doubles — Kosta Koufos had eight and nine and JaVale McGee had 15 and eight in just 17 minutes, while playing down the stretch for Karl, a rarity.

The Denver Post's Benjamin Hochman posts analysis, notes and more on this blog focussing on the Denver Nuggets.

McGee makes many mistakes. He's good for a goaltending a game. And he's not necessarily a fundamentally sound basketball textbook guy out there. But he can pour in points at times. And leap, leap, leap. McGee also has an absurdly high player efficiency rating (25.1, eighth in the league), and on Monday in Memphis, he was marvelous in the second half, while making a key put-back late.

"When I took him (earlier in the fourth, I was confident I was going to put him back in," said Karl, who didn't go with McGee in the home loss last week against the Heat, even though McGee was being productive.

But the night, really, was a masterpiece by Gallo.

"Gallo, I thought in many ways, was the best player on the court tonight," Karl said. "Defensively, we played him at four, and we didn't lose any ground there."

Sure, fans will talk about his big shot off the Lawson pass. But Gallinari also made a vital steal with 32 seconds left, a key block in the fourth quarter, took a charge and finished with a game-high 26 points.

"I was just trying to be aggressive. That's what Coach wants me to do, get to free-throw line," said Gallinari, who was 10-for-11 from the stripe. "And that's what I was trying to do before thinking about my 3-point shot."

What you might have missed. Denver entered the game as the league's worst foul-shooting team. It shot 20-for-28 for 71.4 percent Monday. "We were celebrating shooting 70 percent from the free-throw line," coach George Karl said. "We've got to get better there." ... Though his numbers won't show it, Ty Lawson (nine points and four assists) was important in the win. "I thought Ty was aggressive the whole game," Karl said. "And our offense had more flow and rhythm to it, more consistency of getting good shots every possession."

ODESSA, Texas (AP) — A West Texas man has been charged with impersonating an officer by using sirens and flashing lights to skip to the head of the drive-thru line at a fast-food restaurant. Full Story